Pure Snow
by Jozu Oruha
Summary: In a kingdom, a beautiful princess was born. The king, soon became obsessed with keeping her beauty pure and clean, locking her away in a tower, never to looked upon the eyes of the world. He even gave her a jewel, to forever keep her alive and beautiful.


Pure Snow

Chapter 1: No Truth in a Myth

A long time ago, there lived a King and his Queen in the land of Hisakata. For years the couple had prayed to the heavens for a child, and one day, their wishes came true. The Queen was with child. The whole kingdom was overjoyed with the news, for there would be an heir to the throne finally to be born.

After nine long awaited months, the child was born. She was a beautiful princess, with large brown eyes and a small mound of black hair on top of her small head. The child was given the name of a beautiful flower, which only grew in the land of Hisakata. Kikyo.

But as soon as the child was born, the King grew very protective of his only child and to keep her pure as the day she was born. So to insure his daughter's innocence, he built a huge tower that could almost touch the clouds themselves, and on the very top of the tower, passed many spiral stairs, there was a room where the princess would live out her life. It was the only room in the whole tower. Surrounding the tower, was an enchanted forest, which only allowed the good hearted to past.

She was placed in there, the exits sealed away, as well as the world and all it had to offer. The princess would live there alone, except for one person to take care of her. The caretaker would be a woman, of course. She would make sure the young babe would grow into a healthy adult and away from the impurities from the world.

So the years had pasted by and the little princess, matured from a beautiful baby, into an even more beautiful women, fueling her father's desire to keep her pure even more. But the king soon came to realize, that she would grow old, and her beauty would disappear, for even the most beautiful of rose's withers away. This thought angered the king to no end. He would not allow this to happen to his beloved daughter.

And so, the king of Hisakata ordered all of his soldiers to search far and wide for the secret of immortal youth. Those who returned back to the kingdom, with nothing to show, their head would have been chopped off. But if they succeeded, then the men would get any thing they desired. Thousands of soldiers went on to fulfill this impossible task, and all failed. There were even some men who tried to flee the kingdom, but were soon captured and beheaded.

The years passed by, and the secret to immortal youth and beauty was not found, until a knight came across a village, with a very interesting myth. It told of a woman born in that very village. She had the power of more then ten priestess. But she was kind to all living creatures, and loved them as her own flesh and blood. But one day came a grand army of demons, seeking to destroy her. The army of demons proved to be too strong for her, and so the woman dug deep into her heart, to pull out a jewel. She used all of her remaining strength to seal the demons into the jewel, forever. The woman was known as Midoriko and the jewel that she had pulled out of her chest was given the name of shikon no tama. It meant 'four souls'. According to the myth it told that the jewel held the power to grant your deepest desires and increase your strength ten fold.

The knight, intrigued by this myth, went to find the cave that the villagers had spoken of. They had told him, that it was located in the forest, close to a village that practiced in the art of demon slaying. When the knight finally arrived to the cave, he did not notice the lack of demons in the area, as well as the barrier surrounding the mysterious cave.

When he entered the cave, his jaw dropped from amazement. There in the cave, was a grand statue of numerous demons. Among them, was a figure of a woman. She was the most beautiful thing he had ever laid his eyes on. The light that leaked into the cave, gave her a majestic feel.

The light shone upon the statue and the knight noticed a pink glow coming from her hand. So the knight climbed the huge statue before him, to come right in front of the beautiful figure made of stone. There, clutched in her hand, was a pink jewel. The knight immediately knew that this stone was the jewel from the myth. So he claimed the jewel from the statues hand and rode back to his king as quickly as he could.

When the young knight finally reached the castle and told the guards of what he found, he was quickly taken to the king. As the young knight approached the greedy king, he did not notice they sinister grin on his face, for he was too absorbed in his thoughts about his prize. For when the young knight handed the king the jewel, the room was suddenly filled with guards. It was a trap setup by the king.

He ordered the men to throw the young knight in a pit of fire, for actually thinking that he would give him anything he desired. But as the young knight was being dragged out, he shouted back to the king that he shall have his revenge and take everything he owned and everything the greedy king loved.

The king simply ignored him, and ordered his servants to grind the powerful jewel into powder, and sneak it into the princess's meal. The servants did what they were told to do, grinding the magical jewel into dust and was baked in with bread. When it was done, the bread as well as other items of food were piled into a cart and made its way to the princess's tower. The servant rode for days, until he finally reached the looming tower.

'I bring delicious food, from the king to his beloved daughter!!' he shouted. As soon as the words came out of his lips, a woman looked out the huge window at the top of the tower. She was the caretaker and recognized the man immediately for he brought the princess's weekly food from the castle. So the caretaker set one foot on the ledge of the window, and jumped. But instead of falling, the woman floated gracefully to the ground.

The man was unfazed by this act because he had seen this many times before. The caretaker uses the spell to fly in and out of the tower, when she must. Such knowledge of spells is required to be a caretaker for the young princess.

The stern woman walked to the man, taking the basket of food from his rough hands. She walked back to the tall tower, and began to float up to the single entrance.

The princess, unaware of what has been secretly placed in her food, ate it all, savoring each and every bite. By eating the magical bread, princess Kikyo grained immortality and still lives on, in her incomparable beauty, in the looming tower.

This is the story of the princess Kikyo, who is known far and wide; even reaching far beyond it's boarders, but no one truly knows the truth behind this myth. No one knows what really happened to princess Kikyo, not even the king himself, but if this secret were to be ever told, the results would be catastrophic.

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